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Ashland High School wants to get rid of the “King, Queen and Court” homecoming concept and replace it with their “Grizzly Royalty.”

Honestly, I have mixed feelings about that change. To me, it seems like a pretty good idea to get rid of gender-specific roles and whatnot. But at the same time, it seems kind of pointless. Allow me to explain. In the article, it says that the Ashland High School leadership class is trying to make the whole homecoming experience more open to everyone. However, all they really did is make it to where you can have all three guys, all three girls, or some combination of three guys and girls become “Grizzly Royalty,” instead of “King and Queen.” Brielle Preskenis, the student who spear-headed this change, said that they made the decision because “Students who were transgender or gender neutral were stuck in this ‘limbo’ and couldn't identify.” With that being said, changing homecoming King and Queen to Grizzly Royalty does make sense, and definitely solves a problem, but it doesn't really fix the fact homecoming court is still nothing more than a popularity contest. Now, the article specifically says that the Ashland students want their homecoming election to be “Open to everyone.” Well, they definitely made it more open for students who aren't sure about their gender, but they didn't make it much more open to the kid who’d rather sit alone at lunch and read a book. That kid might want to win homecoming King or Queen one day, but changing the “King and Queen” title to “Grizzly Royalty” doesn't really help the loner kid very much. But the loner kid is still included in Ashland’s “Everyone” category, right? So, my point is that the election isn't really more open to everyone; it’s just become more politically correct. The “Popular kids,” are still going to be Grizzly Royalty. That hasn't changed yet. Really, the only problem that was solved is if one of those popular kids is transgender or gender neutral, then he or she doesn't have to worry about whether they should identify as King or as Queen. Don’t get me wrong. I like the idea, I like what these kids are doing, and I support the progressive movement. But the claim that this change makes the homecoming election more “Open to everyone,” just seems like a bit of a stretch. Changing the King and Queen title made homecoming more open to one specific minority, but not really to the whole student body. To really make the homecoming experience more open to everyone, they’d need to make a change in how they choose who is on court and who become Queen and King (or, in this case, Grizzly Royalty.) Making the election more politically correct definitely solves a small problem in the big issue that is equality. But a title change doesn’t really make the election more open for everyone. The popular kids are still going to win, and the less popular kids are still going to not care. But hey, nobody is going to be saying something like,” Is that one the King or the Queen?” and that’s a step in the right direction.